site.btaBusiness Representatives, Students Discuss Skills of Future at BTA-Hosted Meeting

Business representatives discussed the skills of the future with students at a meeting at the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv, organized by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). The discussion was part of a project "Europe on Balkans: Cohesion Skills", which BTA is implementing with the support of the European Commission (EC).

“The aim of the project is to talk about the exchange of knowledge between the people of Bulgaria and the Balkans and the people from the rest of the European Union (EU), so that we can get to know each other's contribution to our common life in the EU,” BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said in his address.

“Usually you hear that Bulgaria receives money from the EU and the impression is that the Bulgarians are the ones who only benefit from the Union, but the truth is that the EU benefits from Bulgarians as it benefits from other European nations,” Valchev said. In his words, the point of these meetings is to see the modern contribution and the University of Food Technologies is the right place because one of Bulgaria's major contributions is precisely in the field of food. Bulgarians and their entrepreneurial spirit and ideas that Europe benefits from, are the second big contribution, according to BTA’s Director General. "One of the ideas behind meetings like this is to get across the message that you don't have to go to the other end of Europe to implement your ideas. It is possible to do that here," Valchev added.

This is an important, landmark event for the University of Food Technologies, which is a green, innovative, entrepreneurially oriented university, said Prof. Valentina Nikolova-Alexieva, Dean of the Faculty of Economics. According to her, the university trains students in food technology, tourism, general engineering, economics, marketing and works "hand in hand" with business. “Every year we hold off-campus trainings and the aim is to train students outside the university premises together with business to think creatively, ecologically, innovatively, entrepreneurially, creating start-ups and new ideas,” said Prof. Alexieva.

Participants in the meeting rallied around the idea that foreign language skills, risk-taking, adaptability, critical thinking and perseverance are part of the skills that today's entrepreneur needs to develop in the conditions of digitalization and green transition. The discussion was attended by Natalia Ilieva - Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for European Funds, International Programmes and Projects at the Labour Ministry, Katya Staykova - Director of the Cluster Trakia Economic Zone Association, Ivan Vodenchev - Manager of ABB Bulgaria - Rakovski Branch, Victoria Shopova - Communications Specialist at ABB Bulgaria, Vanya Kazakova from Liebherr, Associate Professor Dr. Ekaterina Arabska - Rector of the Higher School of Agribusiness and Regional Development, Valeria and Stefan Nenov from Kaskada Ltd. The students were presented opportunities for professional training and lifelong learning offered by the Human Resources Programme.

In the first Entrepreneur of the Future challenge organized by BTA, students had to work in three teams. Their task was to identify a sector in which they would develop a business idea and to indicate what skills they would need to implement it. Their mentors were Valeria Nenova, Viktoria Shopova and Dr. Ekaterina Arabska. The three teams proposed ideas related to the creation of a career school in Plovdiv, a company to increase the capacity of employees in different companies and an innovative product with collagen derived from residual raw materials. A jury named the collagen product as the winner. The prize is a visit to the Thracian University in Edirne, Turkiye, where next March BTA will organize a conference within the project "Europe on Balkans: Cohesion Skills".